Fellowship United Methodist Church

Today we rode from Mt Airy to Athens, home of the Georgia Bulldogs (not a favorite place for an Auburn fan), for a total of 65 miles. I rode again with Mark and Daniel and a couple of other guys.  We did a blistering pace (for me) for the first 30 miles until I dropped off the back during a steep hill climb.

I told Mark and the guys to go on and I would see them at the end of the ride.  So I settled into my own comfortable pace until another group came by that was more my speed and jumped on their wheel for a while.  I hung with them until they all decided to hit a rest stop and I kept going. 

As I pedaled the last 20 or so miles into Athens I couldn't help but think of how cycling, like life, is so much easier and more fun when you do it with others.  Learning to draft and ride in a pace line is a beautiful thing because each person takes turns "pulling" the rest of the group along and parting the air so that the folks following within inches of their rear wheel do not have as much wind resistance to overcome.  In fact, the pros say that when you are in the draft you are using between 40 and 60% less energy than when riding along, while at the same time going faster than you could on your own.

Isn't that a lot like life?  When we try to do things by ourselves, without the help and support of others, we face so much more resistance and use up all of our energy for life so much faster.  But if we would just learn to go through life together, with people we can trust and who trust us, we could share each other's burdens making life better and easier for each one.

That is a very biblical notion of life and straight from scripture.  Time after time Jesus taught to share one another's burden, to encourage one another, to laugh together and to cry together. 

I am blessed with some great friends like Mark and Daniel and Cary (who I have not ridden with yet) to cycle with on BRAG.  I am also blessed with so many other friends who share their life with me and share in mine.  I pray you are so blessed as well.